I Knew A Boy Once
by canuwhisper
Summary: "I knew a boy once," she explained. / "You and he are similar in…manner, Mr. Herondale." / "Lightwood," Jace snapped. **AU/ After The Mortal Instruments featuring Alec and Jace, Will mentioned. ONESHOT


Alec leaned against the stone wall of the chamber wearing what he imagined was a very indifferent expression.

He didn't like it down here. It filled him with a sense of unease and it didn't help that it smelt like a Drevak demon's breath. The cold seemed to seep straight through his skin till it hit his bone marrow making his muscles ache and he hadn't eaten anything in over 48 hours. None of them had.

"Alec."

Alec turned to Jace, his parabatai, and cocked his head.

Jace said, "Dozing off again, are we?"

"Not at all," Alec replied, but he straightened up and squared his shoulders. "How much longer are we going to wait?"

Jace looked impatient and annoyed, something he was often these days. Only with Alec, though. And Alec couldn't make sense of it because Jace had never been short tempered with him before. They usually bounced easy, care-free banter off of one another but now everything seemed more stressed and less like it used to be. Maybe Alec only had himself to blame for Jace's changes in behavior. He was, after all, pretty irritable these days. Magnus was gone and really, what more was there?

"I don't know," Jace said airily. "The warlock said she would be here at ten and we've been here for awhile. If she's going for fashionably late I might need you to hold her still while I teach her a lesson with my seraph–"

"Please," Alec interrupted. "I'm not in the mood."

"You're never in the mood. I'm simply trying to lighten it."

"Well don't."

"Fine." Jace shrugged. "Stand there miserably and sulk but _by the Angel_, stop scowling. You don't look happy to be here at all."

"That's because I'm not happy to be here," Alec nearly whined. "I told you I _didn't_ want to come! But you made me come!"

"I didn't make you do anything," Jace replied cooly, staring at the ground.

"Oh, right," Alec scoffed. "As if I was going to let you by yourself. You couldn't listen to me just this once, Jace."

"You sound like Mom."

Alec's scowl went deeper. "You know what–"

"Gentlemen."

Jace and Alec both looked around the dark, dank chamber but saw no one. Jace lifted his witch light but the glow only lit so much of the room. Green light bounced off the stones and Alec felt his heartbeat accelerate. He looked at Jace and saw nothing but anticipation and curiosity in his golden eyes.

After a moment of silence Jace said, "Are you going to make us wait all century, or are you going to show yourself?"

"But I'm right here," said a voice behind them, and the two young Shadowhunters spun around, rather wild looks on their faces.

A girl stood before them–no older than themselves–with dark hair and big eyes. It was too dark in the room to see the color of any thing she wore or her features. Alec supposed she was pretty but unassumingly so. There was something sad about her but she had kind eyes.

She could possibly see Jace standing before her, witchlight lighting his features. Alec, however, hung back in the shadows, glad for a moment that the girl couldn't see him.

Jace frowned at the girl. "Here to play games with us?"

"No," she said simply. "I got your message and I know you have use with me. Why would I be here to play games? I must ask, however: why meet in a place as creepy as this?" She spoke so matter-of-factly, Alec thought. There was intelligence and amusement in her voice but judging by her posture she would rather be anywhere but here.

Alec could only see the side of Jace's face; he looked at the girl with unwavering eyes. "Believe me. If it wasn't necessary, we _wouldn't_ have be here."

The girl stared at him for a moment, a strange expression on her face. She appeared to be thinking of something else, perhaps a painful memory. Were there tears in her eyes? "Tessa. My name is Tessa," she said in a soft, slightly wistful voice. "I'm sorry, but you… you remind me of someone. Someone I knew years ago."

The girl, Tessa, stared at Jace–no, _gazed_–and took a few steadying breaths. "Tell me," she said gently. "What is your name? Your full name?"

Alec had only seen Jace taken aback a handful of times in all the time he'd known him. Now, Jace looked absolutely baffled. When he spoke, his voice was soft as well–it was a way of speaking he'd only heard Jace use with Clary. "Jace. Jace… Lightwood."

"Lightwood." Tessa scowled. "No, you can't be."

Alec thought of speaking up but felt wrong bursting into their little moment.

"I wasn't born into the Lightwood family," Jace said, pride evident in his voice. "I have several last names. Makes me more mysterious, don't you think?"

"You're a Herondale," Tessa said, almost desperately. "Are you not?"

Jace frowned, seemingly struggling with whether or not to reply honestly. After a moment he said, "What if I am?"

_Yes,_ Alec thought. _There are tears in her eyes. _

The girl sucked in a shaky breath and took yet another step closer to Jace. "Then I am glad to have met you, Jace Herondale." She still looked distracted, somewhere else entirely.

Alec finally made himself known by clearing his throat. Jace turned his face towards Alec and Tessa's eyes squinted into the darkness.

"Jace, please," he said. "Lets get going. I want to get out of here."

As Alec stepped up to Jace, Tessa's eyes grew wider. Alec wasn't entirely sure Tessa Gray was a sane warlock. Jace had mentioned something about her power, how no other Downworlder could do what she could–but Alec got the feeling that she wasn't all there.

This feeling was confirmed when Tessa's hand reached out and touched the side of Alec's face. As soon as it happened, she withdrew it and took a couple steps back.

"I–I'm sorry. It's just–I don't understand, I–" Tessa stopped and narrowed her eyes at the two of them. Then her voice cut through the drank air like a razor. "Who put you up to this?" She looked on the verge of tears, her voice hysterical and high. "Was it Magnus Bane? Answer me!"

"You know Magnus–" Alec began, but Jace cut him off.

"We have no idea what the hell you're talking about," Jace said, voice rising. "We're here to carry out a task, an official task, and we need your assistance to do that. We're wasting time."

Something in Jace's expression must have brought Tessa back down to earth. Her shoulders relaxed slightly and she looked embarrassed. Alec was baffled–he had never seen a warlock behave in such a way.

"I knew a boy once," she explained. "You and he are similar in…manner, Mr. Herondale."

"Lightwood," Jace snapped.

"Lightwood, then." She turned her gaze on Alec. "And you look–well, very similar to him. Your features… Forgive me." Tessa's hand was now pressed to her forehead and her eyes were closed.

"Well…" Jace stared at her with interest that he was obviously trying to push down. "Can we start now?"

Tessa opened her eyes and said, "Yes, yes. We can."

So they went down the damp, dark dungeon, deeper and deeper inside. Jace hadn't revealed their exact destination to Alec but he knew vaguely what they were looking for: a bronze door with the Clave's symbol on the door. Alec had been wondering how they would be able to find such a door when it was so dark in down there but hadn't argued with Jace. He seemed convinced it would be easy.

They walked on for nearly ten minutes but all the while Alec's mind was somewhere else. He was trying to piece together what Tessa had said. As he watched her slender, tall figure moving ahead of him, he tried to recall what Camille Belcourt had said to Magnus that time a few years back… something about a boy with similar features to Alec… and Tessa had brought Magnus into the conversation so they obviously knew or had known one another at some point.

What had been the boys name? When Tessa had said Herondale, it _had_ sparked this specific memory. So it had to be the right person. Black hair, blue eyes, and a personality to match Jace's?

Had Tessa been in love with this boy? Is that why she had acted the way she had? Whoever the Herondale boy was, he must be dead, Alec thought. He must have lived years ago. She looked so helpless, so hurt by the whole thing. She had even gotten angry. That love she had for him never died, that much was easy to see.


End file.
